Quarterfinals set in Women's World Cup

On the top half of the bracket, host Germany will face Group B runner-up Japan, and Sweden will face Australia, which surprised perennial power Norway to take the second spot in Group D. On the lower half, England and France meet in an all-European quarterfinal, while the United States takes on Brazil in a meeting that some figured would be a championship-game matchup. Here's the schedule for the Women's World Cup quarterfinals:

England and France, I like France’s pace over England.
Germany is in for a cake walk.
Sweden and Australia, can’t say I’m excited about this match up, but I see the Swedes edging out the Matildas.
Brazil and US, this has the possibility of being the best match of this tournament thus far.

I want the US to win it all just as much as the next guy, but in order to do that they need to be a more ruthless team in front of goal. Consistency is key and the US has been off-and-on during this entire world cup cycle.

We used to be top of the world, but now we get schooled by the better euro teams and by skilled teams like Brazil. Even when we win we don’t do it in style. No creativity – lots of “effort” and organization and “athleticism.” Really boring stuff. I don’t see the next great U.S. female soccer player out there.

We are a much different team without Heather O’Reilly. She is the Stu Holden of the WNT. Her service is sublime, she can create, and can finish. The big question is whether her presence can outweigh the human gaffe machines of Lepeilbet and Buehler. Unless we maintain a decent amount of possession, we will be attacked relentlessly on our left side. Too bad Rodriguez does not play left back. She has the pace we need and since she is not scoring goals, the move from striker would come without a price.

but… if they’re consistently inconsistent, doesn’t that mean they’ll play better next game? if they were to win the WC, they’d have to go through brazil eventually. might just as well play brazil earlier before they gel more (as brazil’s federation doesn’t support them enough to play friendly/warmup games).